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SENATOBIA, Miss. (BFMG) — A preliminary autopsy commissioned by the family of a 1-year-old boy killed during a police shooting in Mississippi is raising new questions about the circumstances leading up to the child’s death, intensifying public outrage and calls for transparency.
The child, identified as Kohen Wiley, was killed June 14 when Senatobia police opened fire on a moving vehicle in a Walmart parking lot. Authorities initially said an officer discharged a weapon after the driver allegedly drove toward officers, nearly striking one of them.
But civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said Wednesday that preliminary autopsy findings suggest the child was shot from the side of the vehicle — not from the front — contradicting the claim that the car was heading directly at officers.
Kohen’s mother, who was holding the child in the passenger seat, has said the driver was attempting to leave the scene when shots were fired. Both Kohen and his mother are Black.
Crump said the autopsy indicates the bullet entered the child’s torso on the right side and exited on the left, a trajectory he argues is consistent with a shot fired through the passenger side of the vehicle. He added that cuts on the right side of the child’s chest and abdomen are consistent with shattered tempered glass from the passenger-side window.
Photos and diagrams presented during a news conference at Senatobia Church of Christ showed a shattered passenger window and what appeared to be a bullet hole in the passenger side of the windshield. Another woman in the vehicle was seriously injured, authorities said.
Crump emphasized that the findings are preliminary and that the pathologist did not have access to all available evidence. He called on authorities to release police body camera footage, dashcam video and Walmart surveillance video.
“We’re going to try to continue to demand transparency,” Crump said.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the inquiry, declined to comment Wednesday. Tate County Coroner Ernie Lentz said the official autopsy report is not yet complete. Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford and a Walmart spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The shooting has sparked protests in Senatobia, a small north Mississippi town, where residents have pointed to prior controversial encounters involving local law enforcement.
The case has drawn comparisons to other high-profile incidents involving Black victims and police use of force over alleged low-level offenses. Crump said police were initially responding to a report involving diapers that may have been shoplifted.
Crump also questioned why officers would fire at a vehicle when they knew a child was inside, noting that investigators’ own account indicated officers saw two women and a child enter the car before the shooting.
“They want us to believe that it was a life-or-death situation,” Crump said. “They told us that, but they have not showed us that.”
Criminal justice expert Ian Adams of the University of South Carolina said investigators will need to closely examine the vehicle’s position, bullet trajectories and the location of those involved before drawing firm conclusions.
“We need to know a lot more before drawing firm conclusions based on bullet wounds alone,” Adams said.
The investigation remains ongoing.
